Optimization of Critical Pressure of Composite Cylindrical Pressure Vessels

Composite materials are extensively used to produce lightweight and strong structures in different industries, especially aerospace and military. One of the prominent applications of composites is in making pressure vessels, which are used to store a variety of industrial gases under high pressure. In this paper, pressure carrying capacity of cylindrical composite vessels are studied and the effect of composite layup and fiber angle on critical pressure is investigated. Using gradient based optimization, the maximum attainable pressure for each layup and the corresponding fiber angle is calculated and compared with a single layer composite with the same thickness. To obtain critical pressure, governing equations of the problem are solved, and the Tsai-Hill failure theory is used to predict the onset of failure of the vessel. The results are presented for different symmetric and antisymmetric layups and different composite materials and are discussed. It is shown that the critical pressure can be increased significantly by choosing the appropriate layup and fiber angle in a composite material.

کلیدواژه ها:

cylindrical pressure vessel ، composite laminates ، layup ، critical pressure ، Tsai-Hill failure theory